BACK TO THE ROOTS

DUNCAN BARRY interviews Lebanese-born wine-maker and co-owner FAOUZI ISSA of Domaine des Tourelles wines – a 150-year-old winery in the Bekaa Valley that is cornering the foreign wine market over and above Lebanon’s with its selection – a variety that is bound to make it to your list of wine favourites, same as it did in the 101 wines to try before you die.

Standing proud behind his fine selection of Domaine des Tourelles wines at leading wine importer and distributor P. Cutajar’s ‘The Store’, Faouzi, who was on a visit to Malta after a short stop in Germany, starts off by highlighting that one of his wines – Cinsault – has made it to the list of ‘101 Wines to Try Before You Die’.

The guide by award-winning author Margaret Rand selects wines to taste in a lifetime and includes prestigious wines of French and Californian wine-makers to lesser-known ones. The book features wines as costly as US$1,000 (€890) a bottle but the good thing is that Faouzi’s range is affordable to say the least.

To add to the praise the winery he co-owns received over the years, wine critic Victoria Moore – a regular contributor to some leading US and British newspapers and magazines, including the Telegraph and Daily Mail - listed his brand in her wine of the week column. Jancis Robinson – another popular wine critic also had words of praise for the much-embraced Cinsault.

“If Robinson says your wine is not to be considered, then you should pack up, but if she lauds your wines, you’re sure to have a record year!” Faouzi says, sporting a smile while flipping through some pictures and guiding me through a journey of his picturesque winery located in the 1,000-metre elevated Valee de la Bekaa in Lebanon, which even features very old still images of past generations.

So how did Faouzi and his family take the helm of this old winery? He recalls: “When my sisters and I were kids, we knew the family and owner François-Eugène Brun who ran the winery very well. In 1998, his family wanted to sell out but wouldn’t just sell it to anyone who came along. But since they knew our family had a great passion for the old vines, they sold it to us, but more than sold it, they entrusted it. We instilled peace of mind that the winery will be in very good hands.

“It’s just like out of a movie… the family that owned the winery before us had no off-spring and nobody could take over and keep up the family tradition until we stepped in,” Faouzi says. “We were like family to them,” he adds. Initially, it was Faouzi’s father who made the wines while Faouzi was graduating and about to get a job overseas. “But I was quickly called to return to the vineyard by my father,” he says.

Faouzi - the 6th generation co-owner - considers himself a winemaker and businessman and doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. “Six months of the year, I am making wine, the rest I’m giving wine importers a taste of my wines and Lebanon’s culture.”

When asked what the main challenge wine-makers like him face these days, he says: “If you’re speaking about Lebanon, it’s the political challenges, although things have improved drastically over the years. Lebanon is not marketed enough among tourists. Despite this, we do receive millions of visitors each year.”

As for competition, overseas, he says that not many attribute Lebanon to wines or even know where Lebanon is. But once people have discovered Lebanon or our wines, then all is good. There’s

some stiff competition out there,” he continues. Amid some travel advisories by some countries for its citizens not to visit due to pressing issues, he states that Lebanon’s capital is cosmopolitan and being in Beirut these days is like being anywhere else. “Locals are very friendly too.”

Businessmen like Faouzi pin the blame on foreign propaganda and a lack of good marketing for the repute that stuck to it, and the terrorist group-related attributes like Hezbollah. But back to the winery which was also dubbed the most seductive winery in the Middle East by the Financial Times, Mr Faouzi says that his winery is the first to have opened as a commercial winery in Lebanon, and bottles wines using 70-year-old vines. It was also the first to make a rosé in Lebanon. The winery also uses indigenous yeast “and we are very lucky to have old vines and our own yeast as it makes our wines the more prestigious, besides being of high quality”.

And that’s not all. Filtration of wines is done using Sisal strands – dried thistles which yield a stiff fibre used in making various products and the wine-maker boasts of another sister local product of theirs called Aruk Brun – a sub-category of the broader liqueur family produced from the alcohol of grapes and blended with fresh aniseed. The Issa family also own a shop in Beirut which sells wines.

So, what enhanced Faouzi’s love for wine-making – who underwent training in this field at Rene Rostaing and in France’s Château Margaux, a wine estate of Bordeaux wine - to continue this path?

“The most valuable thing,” he recalls, “is that when I knocked on the door of vigneron Rene Rostaing, this man opened and I asked to speak to the owner of the vineyard. This man’s hands were dirty and he wasn’t wearing any shoes. He asked me to take a seat and wait while he went about his duties.

“To my surprise, he came back and sat near me and told me that he was the owner. I was expecting the owner to be well-dressed as he’s a very wealthy man. This helped teach me that I needed to get my hands dirty from then on to be successful and this is what drove me to be so hands-on.”

Faouzi explains that although the winery has gone back to its roots, it took a while till he started experimenting with wine production and was extremely hesitant at first not to go by the book. Last year, the winery celebrated 150 years since its making during a prestigious event in London where the 11 Tourelles wines were showcased.

Concluding, Mr Faouzi said that wines are not like brands such as Bosch or BMW. At times people need to be reminded that there are some good wines out there away from the varieties we always tend to hear about and Tourelles’ wines are a great example. “Weather conditions are good and appropriate at the vineyard throughout the year. We have equipment for distillation purposes made from copper steel dating back to the 19th century and our grapes are grown organically and hand-picked. What better quality wine can you get more when coupled with our 150-year-old vines?”

P. Cutajar Co. Ltd is the sole importer and distributor of the Domaine des Tourelles range.